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Contact

See full CV and project portfolio at mclaibourn.github.io.

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Michele Claibourn

I am a research director – a senior data scientist, political scientist, community-engaged scholar, and senior administrator – with 20 years of experience teaching, leading, and managing research and data science teams. Recently I’ve been building and leading Research Data Services in the UVA Library.

My own work has turned towards action-based research, using the tools of data science to promote accountable governance, make visible racial and other social inequities, and impact public policy and movement building. I am always interested in opportunities to use my experience and skills towards creating a more economically and socially just world.

Professional Experience

Leadership

Consult with researchers and design research projects with partners seeking to better understand racial disparities and social structures, and to develop a policy response.

Founded StatLab, a data science consulting service for members of the UVA community where I continue to serve as a senior consultant and to mentor student fellows.

Build a new division of the library enhancing our ability to support the growing data science research community at UVA, recruiting, hiring, and managing a team with diverse skills and talents to meet emerging university research needs.

Supervise a team of 10-12 full-time staff, 3-4 graduate fellows, and research teams across mulitple collaborations on a range of research projects, including work on equity and COVID response in the Charlottesville community, racial disparities in the local child welfare systems, forced displacement events with humanitarian partners, and additional community-oriented and library-directed data science efforts.

Director, Research Data Services & Social, Natural, and Engineering Sciences

UVA Library, University of Virginia

N/A

Current - 2015

  • Lead Data Scientist, Equity Center, 2020-present (partial buyout)
  • Faculty Affiliate/Lead Data Scientist, Global Policy Center, 2019-present
  • Co-Director, Community, Policy, Analytics and Strategy Lab, 2018-present

Director, StatLab and Research Data Services

UVA Library, University of Virginia

N/A

2015 - 2013

  • Associate Director, Data Science Institute, 2014-2016 (partial buyout)

Data Scientist

Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, University of Virginia

N/A

2013 - 2011

Assistant Professor

Department of Politics, University of Virginia

N/A

2011 - 2004

Education

PhD., Political Science

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Madison, WI

2002 - 1996

B.A, Political Science

Rice University

Houston, TX

1993 - 1989

Teaching and Mentoring

Graduate Courses

University of Virginia and University of Oklahoma

N/A

2020 - 2002

  • Public Interest Data Lab, Saving Lives with Data, Text as Data, Applied Causal Inference, General Linear Models, Linear Models, Applied Time Series, Mixed-Effects Models/Longitudinal Analysis, Introduction to Statistical Analysis

Undegraduate Courses

University of Virginia and University of Oklahoma

N/A

2020 - 2002

  • Project First Gen +, Research Design & Analysis, The Presidency and the Public, Media & Political Communication, Political Pscyology & Decision Making, Citizen Competence in American Democracy, Introduction to American Politics

Select StatLab Workshops

University of Virginia

N/A

2019 - 2013

  • Six-part series on Data Science in R, Multiple Imputation, Cluster Analysis, Duration Models, Matching Methods, Mixed-Effects Models,Sentiment Analysis, Topic Modeling, Text Classification, Data Wrangling, Linear Modeling

REU Mentor

School of Data Science, UVA

N/A

2019

Selected Writing and Presentations

Methods and Software
  • Statistical modeling and data science
  • R, RStudio, Shiny
  • Data wrangling and visualization
  • Stata and SPSS
  • Text analytics
  • GitHub and reproducibility
  • Some Python and SQL
  • Qualitative methods

Charlottesville Foster Care Study

Report to the Charlottesville Department of Social Services

N/A

2019

  • With Charlotte McClintock and the Public Interest Data Lab

Panel Chair and Moderator

Data & Democracy, School of Data Science Datapalooza, University of Virginia

N/A

2019

Homework and Hubris: Preparing for Community-Engaged Courses

Innovations in Teaching Pedagogy Summit, University of Virginia

N/A

2019

  • With Paul Martin

Congressional Earmarks and the Politcs of Representation

Center for the Study of Data and Knowledge, University of Virginia

N/A

2016

Teaching and Writing

20 years of experience teaching statistics and data science methods, applied policy research, and political behavior to undergraduate and graduate students.

Design data workshop series for student and adult learning communities, including recruiting and mentoring instructors, marketing and assessment, and contributing to select topics.

Experienced writer in multiple formats, from university press books and peer-reviewed journal articles, to action-oriented reports for local and state agencies, educational materials, and informal writing.

Skilled in communicating about data, technology, and policy to stakeholders, advocates, and learners.

Citizen Participation and Congressional Responsiveness: New Evidence for Why Participation Matters

Legislative Studies Quarterly 38: 59-82

N/A

2013

  • With Paul Martin

Creating Constituencies: Presidential Campaigns, Selective Mobilization, and the Scope of Conflict

Political Behavior 34: 27-56

N/A

2012

  • With Paul Martin

Presidential Campaigns and Presidential Accountability

University of Illinois Press, Series on Democracy, Free Enterprise, and the Rule of Law

N/A

2011

The Third Face of Social Capital: How membership in Voluntary Associations Improves Policy Accountability

Political Research Quarterly 60: 192-201

N/A

2007

  • With Paul Martin

Gender Differences in Citizen-Level Democratic Citi-zenship: Evidence from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems

Presented to the International Political Science Association (2000), the Midwest Political Science Association (2001), and the Conference on Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (2002)

N/A

2002 - 2000

  • With Virginia Sapiro
  • 2001 Winner, Sophonisba Breckenridge Award for best paper on Women & Politics, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting

Trusting and Joining: An Empirical Test of the Reciprocal Nature of Social Capital

Political Behavior 22: 267-291

N/A

2000

  • With Paul Martin

Last updated on 2020-06-04.